Hello there, my name is Corey,
Most of you, im about to bore with my story.
Growing up, my life was far from perfect,
Mum and dads love became all but a wreck.
I know they once loved each other.
Dad left the house, so we stayed with our mother.
If only we all knew the long road we were about to take,
But it never needed to be like this for fucks sake.
I was too young to understand why dad wasn't around anymore.
Mum was hurting, so she put new locks on the door.
I hadn't seen dad in months until he was finally granted one Saturday.
It was easy to see that he was quite short on pay.
We couldn't do much but I cherished every minute with my dad.
The day was over and we were forced to say goodbye, I became very sad.
Time went by and I got to see my dad more regularly.
I had a ball, so I would come home and brag continuously.
Mum got upset, so I wasn't allowed to talk about our time.
I know mum was hurting, but I was a kid, I wasn't committing a crime.
The tension between my parents grew and grew,
They just didn't love each other anymore for all I knew.
They continued to hurt each other by playing stupid games,
My mum even started calling him by mean names.
I was too young to really know what was going on,
But what I did know was that this battle was already far too long.
Mum tried to move on and started to seek,
A new man who seemed to change each week.
These men always seemed to be so big and tall,
Don't get me wrong, it was great to see my mum laughing and having a ball.
They would always push themselves in,
To be my father, something they could never win.
As life continued to go on,
Everything just seemed so wrong.
Mum fed us lies after lies,
People started to believe her, especially when she cries.
I believed her and never questioned, as why would my mother lie to me?
She had to be in control, so she started making plans to flee.
It was the end of the year, last day of grade four,
When a friend accidentally slipt, and said Wollongong would be my home no more.
I was confused so I came home to question my mum.
I just remember feeling so nervous and biting my thumb.
I sat there waiting for my mother to speak,
"Corey, you need to start packing, we're moving to Perth next week,
You can't tell your friends where you are going,
I'm sorry we just can't have them knowing.
I know you'll be okay, your a trooper,
By the way, we're changing your last name to Cooper"
I was only nine years old,
How to handle what I was just told.
As I thought about my new life in Perth,
I thought of stupid things, like would I continue to surf?
Before I knew it we were sitting on our flight,
I was upset and felt sick, this was just not right.
What felt like only minutes, we had started to land.
Perth wasn't how I thought it would be, i pictured more sand.
We started our new life living in a refuge home,
It was great and all, although it felt like being under the dome.
We would just sit in silence all day,
We had set times for when we could play.
Starting school could not come soon enough,
These first few weeks in Perth just felt so rough.
Mum wanted us to hide,
I had no say, all I could do was abide.
She had committed a crime, she was living in fear,
I didn't quite understand, until the teacher yelled "Nathan Cooper are you here?"
I didn't respond, having a new last name was hard enough for me.
All the kids were confused, so they questioned me at morning tea.
I didn't know what to say,
So I just ignored them all day.
Eventually they stopped, I began to make some friends.
I had been there for almost a term, when mum said "time at this school, this is where it ends"
The refuge had offered us our own place to live,
It was hard, a smile I could no longer give.
Once again we packed up and began to move,
I guess I just held on to the thought, one day life would improve.
I started at my new school,
I had time to adjust, so this time I didn't look such a fool.
This new uniform, I felt like a dork,
Lucky school wasn't far, a five minute walk.
Mum didn't have a license in her new name,
She had to resit all her tests again.
Life was starting to feel so simple,
Mum and I had improved, but I would still run and scream when she'd ask to pop a pimple.
Thinking back on the six months living at this place,
We were all happy, finally a real smile upon our face.
We would go to the beach after school almost every day,
It would be past bed time, but I'd always beg to stay.
Perth weather was so much hotter,
Absolutely beautiful seeing the sun set over the water.
Goldie, she was our golden retriever,
She was finally getting sent over. We rushed to the airport so we could receive her.
Mum had started a new relationship,
Only he lived in Melbourne, which was hard to grip.
Nice guy, Tony was his name.
Our house in Perth, was a while before he came.
Often bacon or pancakes would be ready for when we wake.
Coming home from school, snacks would be ready after mum slaved in the kitchen to bake.
It took me a while, but I had finally developed a close mate. For that short moment in time, life felt so great.
One day mum picked me up from school in her car.
"I'm sorry Corey, we have to move, you father knows where we are"
It happened so fast, no chance to say goodbye, déjà vu.
Only this time to Brisbane we flew.
I had lost all my friends once again.
When was I ever going to stop feeling this pain?
Tony had a house waiting, they were taking their relationship to the next level.
Unpacking felt like it took forever, 1 day felt like several.
I thought I'd be good at settling in to new schools by now.
To have faith we wouldn't move, I couldn't, I didn't know how.
I held off on making friends, I was afraid.
This new school was more then welcoming, so new friendships were easily made.
I remember lunch time over in Perth.
The kids would say let's play footy, their favourate thing to do since birth.
I'd try to play, but they'd start kicking it everywhere.
I'd think to myself, what the hell are you doing, that's not how you play, that isn't fair.
Auzzie rules footy was unheard of back home,
Just like rugby league was a sport they had never been shown.
I tried my best to teach them how to play 'real' footy at lunch.
Not knowing rugby, to me, made them a strange bunch.
When we came to Brisbane,
We moved just up the road to the kedron lions den.
I remember a guest coming to our school to promote Auzkick.
I was getting unfit, mum wanted me to play a sport, so I had made my pick.
I learnt so much playing Auzkick, although it was designed for seven year olds.
I was ten and towered over of our little group called Auzkick golds.
I was kicking goals from fullback.
After a few weeks, I was approached "your doing well, your on the right track,
How would you like to join a team?
You could play for the Brisbane lions one day, isn't that your dream?"
There's a few funny things about that,
My skills were low, I was short, slow and fat.
I laughed, "nah, gonna play for the Sydney Swans. Awesome, how do I sign up?"
